Three years after its release in bookshops, The Ballad of the Serpent and the Songbird, the first spin-off from Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games saga, is being adapted for the big screen, on November 15, 2023. Fans of the dystopian saga will be delighted!
The plot of this fifth film takes place sixty-four years before the events ofHunger Games. We'll discover President Snow's youth, when he was a brilliant Capitol Hill high school student whose destiny was turned upside down by the 10th Hunger Games, during which he was entrusted with the most wretched of Tributes, a girl from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird. Coriolanus Snow will do anything to help her win the Hunger Games.
This fifth installment is still directed by Francis Lawrence, who had already penned the last three installments of the tetralogy. The cast includes Tom Blyth, in his first major film role, and Rachel Zegler, seen in West Side Story and soon to appear in the live-action remake of Snow White. More established actors include Viola Davis(The Woman King, The Suicide Squad) and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones).
Our verdict
Hunger Games is a typical product of its time. A dystopian saga for teenagers adapted from a series of books, it launched a very lively craze in the first half of the 2010s, which came to a screeching halt as quickly as it appeared. So to launch a new Hunger Games movie in 2023, eight years after the release of the last installment, is quite a gamble. In any case, the film has been awaited by a whole generation of fans, and their expectations are about to be fulfilled.
Yes, this new Hunger Games is much better than its predecessors, and perhaps even the best sequel to the first film. Even if the book was a disappointment. This adaptation may be extremely faithful, but it surpasses the original material, and that's rare enough to be mentioned. This superiority is due to Francis Lawrence's staging, while classic, which is very well executed from start to finish, and makes a welcome change from the random wanderings of American Marvel blockbusters. The film is long, and at 2 hours 40 minutes, it totally immerses us in this dense fresco, divided into three distinct parts, a veritable trilogy in a single film. In fact, there's never a dull moment. The idea of taking the point of view of Coriolanus Snow, who will become the saga's great villain, is a judicious one. Above all, it allows us to see something rare in a blockbuster of this caliber: the idealistic, naive hero becomes a monster.
The film's greatest strength lies in its cast. While the main character is played by a virtual unknown, Tom Blyth, this Hunger Games boasts some very fine names in its supporting cast. Old-timers Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage and Jason Schwartzman ham it up to the hilt and have the time of their lives in these colorful roles. Above all, Rachel Zegler continues to prove that she is one of the greatest actresses of the emerging new generation. We could almost ask for more.
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